Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-03-07
A MIRACLE on A rREsTLE.
The Accident on the Iron Mountain
Road a Very Peculiar One.

Road Very Peculiar One.
ST. LOUIS, Mo-, March 6.-The acci-
dent on the Iron Mountain railway, near
De Soto, Mo-, last night, while not being
at all usual in regard TO fatal casualties,
proves to have been quite remarkable in
respect to several circumstances which
attended it. 1t occurred atVictoria, 80
miles south OF here, little after 10
| O'Clock, and was caused by the giving
| way under the train of a trestle which
crosses Joachim creek at that point. The
train was the Texas express and consist
ed OF baggage, express and mail cars,
a smoker, two passenger coaches and
-FOUR sleepers, carrying about 130 passen-
| gers.
HEAVY RAIN
A heavy rain had fallen all day and the
creek was much swollen. At Hematite,
| the first station this side of the trestle,
the engineer received orders to run eau
tlOusly, as the rain had been heavy and
| the creek was out of its banks. Engineer
Kelley says he ran slowly beyond that
point, and both he and his fireman, Will
| liam Hach, watched the track very care
fully. AS he approached the trestle, En-
| gineer Kelley observed that the track was
| entirely straight and level. showing notn-
Ing wrong, and he went on without the
slightest lear or hesitation, but when his
engine reached about the middle of the
trestle he felt the whole structure sink
| ing beneath him.
SINKING OF THE TRESTLE.
In an instant he opened the valve opera
ting the air brakes full width, and brought
the train to so quick stop that the front
end of one Of the cars was crushed in by
the sudden shock. This saved the
coaches, but the baggage, mail, express
a,Nd on NIri Inc Al
torrent below, carrying with them all the
men on board. Engineer Kelley and
Fireman Hach went down with the en-
glne, and were submerged In the flood.
Engineer Kelley in his struggles To free
himself found that one of his feet was
held fast, but at the same instant and
just as he realized that he must drown,
the engine turned over, his foot was re-
leased and he came to the surface.
SAVED BY TREE.
Seizing passing log he clung to it des-
perately and was swept down the torrent
and lodged against tree $50 Yards below.
With scarcely strength enough to move
he clasped his legs and arms around the
limb OF the tree, became unconscious and
was not restored until two or three hours
after he had been taken from the tree,
when he found himself kindly cared for
in. house in Victoria. His face and
head were severely cut, two of his toes
cut from his feet and he is very badly
bruised in various parts of the body. He
| will recover.
THE FIREMAN'S ESCAPE.
Fireman Hach was carried about 500
yards down the stream, lodged in mass
of brush or drift and was rescued soon
| after the flood subsided. He is a good
deal bruised, but not seriously hurt.
| The postal Car was swept away some
distance, and as the water rushed through
| it from end to end the mail was literally
washed out, and is now scattered over
miles of territory or embedded in the mud
of the creek. 1t is regarded as almost a
total loss, the whole of it being completely
| soaked and the addresses of the letters
| being 0bliterated.
NARROW ESCAPES.
| Postal Clerks Mccullough, Shaffer and
and Ryan were badly bruised and almost
drowned, and being stripped for work
they lost all their clothes, their gold
| watches and about $3.50 in money which
were carried away by the food.
The smoker, which is said to have con-
| tained some twenty persons, was swept
| down about 300 feet below the trestle and
| all of It's occupants are believed to have
| been saved. They succeeded in getting
| outside of the car, and clung to its top
dou bt about the baggage man and express
messenger being saved, but late dis
patch from the wreck says that none of
| the train men were lost.
AID SENT TO THE SCENE.
A special train was sent from here be-
| tween II and l O'Clock conveying physi-
clans and medical supplies. The train
| returned this afternoon and brought a
mum Der of passengers and trainmen who
did not care to wait at the wreck until
the trestle was repaired, AS soon as the
water subsided sufficiently large gang
of men was put to work, land a new cross
| ing was finished this afternoon and trains
are now running regularly. The cause of
the unprecedented flood is believed to
have been a cloudburst which took place
late in the evening and filed the creek,
which runs between rugged hills for
miles, so tull chat il became a raging tor
rent with a current of over twenty miles
per hour and swept everything before 1t.